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Friday, March 23, 2012

Shake It Like an Etch A Sketch

I would like to thank Eric Fehrnstrom (who probably now goes
by the name Mr. Firestorm) from Mitt Romney's political camp for bringing the
simple joy of Etch A Sketch back into my life. It's been decades since I’ve
even given a thought to that wonderful toy that meant so much to me as a child.
I can see why E.F. referred to the Etch A Sketch as a simile for the clean
slate he's hoping Mitt’s campaign can achieve after the bothersome primaries
are over and before they go into the general election (assuming they do go
forward).

I can’t remember ever being able to draw one decent picture
on my beloved Etch A Sketch when I was a kid, but I do vividly remember the
great satisfaction that I felt every one of the countless times I turned it
over after yet another failed attempt and gave it a good, stern, even vicious,
shake knowing that when I flipped it up again, no trace of my flub remained.
There was a clean board ready for me to compose another non-masterpiece.

There are a lot of people responding to E.F.’s comment by
saying that he is out of touch, that there’s no such thing as shaking the Etch
A Sketch these days. Once something is done or said, it is instantly
memorialized in a million forms of media. And it’s there to stay.

I disagree. I think that, given the right amount of shake
and spin, politicians can successfully cleanse the slate so we (all the other
kids on the playground) will only see the newly contrived configuration. It was
an appropriate simile and could, in fact, be a very apt depiction of Mitt’s
campaign strategy.